"Aren't you coming back today either?"
"Mm, I'm still staying at Mr. Ollivander's today," Hermione said into the phone with a cheerful tone.
Outside Diagon Alley, Hermione was, as usual, talking to her parents.
The existence of Dimensional Magic, Mind Connects All Phenomena, had a significant impact on Hermione. In her pursuit of 'answers,' she had witnessed and felt the inner thoughts of too many people.
She had shed some of her childishness and understood what she truly wanted.
At the same time, she also understood how precious and rare this experience was for her.
Witnessing history slowly unfold new chapters before her eyes, she didn't want to miss this opportunity.
"...Alright." Hermione's father was initially a bit worried about his daughter staying out.
However, after personally visiting Ollivanders, he understood his daughter's choice.
He agreed to Hermione's request but insisted that she call him every day to report that she was safe.
It wasn't that he had any issues with Roger or Ollivander.
Both he and his wife were Muggles, while their daughter was a witch. With their daughter away for nearly nine months of the year, they couldn't just pretend everything was normal.
Although they didn't understand magical things, they could still understand their daughter's History of Magic textbooks and those wizarding newspapers.
Hermione's parents had tried to understand the wizarding world. They knew that magical research was a very dangerous thing.
Although Roger was primarily the one doing the magical research, and they respected their daughter's choice, they still felt reassured only after hearing her report her safety daily.
"Tomorrow is the start of term, do you want me to pick you up?"
Of course, there was another very important reason: when Hermione had contacted him, the start of term was only a few days away.
Once Hermione started school, she would naturally be far from the front lines.
"No need, Roger said he'll take me," Hermione replied.
After that, Hermione chatted with her father about a few everyday matters before hanging up the phone and leaving the phone booth by the street.
...
...
...
After nearly a year of interaction, Hermione and Roger had become quite familiar with each other.
However, their familiarity was only on a personal level.
Hermione had always only half-understood Roger's magical research.
The more profound aspects of Three-Dimensional Law were beyond her current capabilities, and Roger only taught her some introductory concepts.
This was the first time Hermione had witnessed firsthand how Roger conducted his magical research and development.
After observing for a few days, Hermione noticed a problem.
"Tomorrow is the start of term, and your new wand seems far from completion."
Back in Diagon Alley, at Ollivanders.
The setting sun cast its light into the room, which was piled high with numerous wand boxes, making it feel somewhat cramped.
And now, in this already narrow space, a large number of wands were suspended in mid-air. These were all prototypes from Roger and Ollivander.
Failed prototypes.
"Isn't that perfectly normal?" Roger didn't turn around, his gaze sweeping across the hundreds of wands in the air.
"Every bit of progress, no matter how small, is not an easy thing to achieve."
"Especially a wand that integrates Second Magic, creating it from scratch."
Roger raised his hand and took a wand from mid-air. A flash of magical light passed, and though it was unclear what Roger had done, the wand began to fade and disappear, as if a 'layer' had been erased.
Then, a vision of the moon rising over the sea erupted from the wand's core.
Passing his fingertips through the three-dimensional illusion, Roger continued, "Estimating the worst-case scenario, I might even need a full year, until the next summer holiday, to complete it."
"Of course, if everything goes incredibly smoothly, it might only take a month or two."
Hermione, who was already somewhat puzzled by Roger's actions, became even more confused after hearing his words.
Fortunately, facing Roger, Hermione didn't need to hold back. She could speak her mind and express any questions freely.
"Roger... why did you set such a high goal from the beginning?" Hermione was also a practitioner of Three-Dimensional Law.
Moreover, she had cultivated it to the point of developing her own Second Magic.
She fully understood how difficult Roger's undertaking was.
To use something she was familiar with as an example, it was like needing to complete nearly 10 years of junior high, high school, and university coursework in elementary school and achieve excellent grades.
"Have you ever considered that you might not need to achieve it all at once, but rather progress step by step?"
Although Hermione couldn't fully comprehend Roger's magical experiments, she could grasp some of the general trends.
She could sense that Roger's experimental progress was consistently advancing.
And...
If he had only wanted to strengthen the wand to the point where it could be used "now," Roger could have done it long ago! Using the power of Second Magic to enhance the wand was a technical hurdle Roger had already overcome.
What Roger was doing now was trying to solve all future wand problems once and for all.
He wasn't just enhancing it; he was linking Virtual Reality with magic power, allowing it to completely fuse with the wand while possessing the potential for infinite growth.
This goal was set too high, too far. So, even though Roger was progressing every moment, he was still quite far from the "finish line."
"Why would I do that?" Through the moonlight, Roger met Hermione's gaze with a look of confusion.
"You could absolutely research the wand you envision in stages, with continuous version iterations..."
Hermione's idea was simple: perhaps Roger could lower his goal a bit first.
Create a finished product, and then, with a finished product in hand, set a slightly higher goal, proceeding step by step in a cycle.
Roger had also told her that he had the idea of making the Three-Dimensional Law public.
At that time, wand issues would surely become a "must-have" for all wizards worldwide! Then, Roger could be like electronic products, which don't immediately release all their advancements to the market, even with major technological breakthroughs.
She believed Roger could release his achievements in batches.
This way, he could gain both immense reputation and immense profit, achieving fame and fortune.
"You will become the trendsetter for the entire wizarding world. Every move you make will be followed by countless people. With such influence and appeal, you can do many things."
"Uh..." Roger pondered for a moment, then his expression became even more inexplicable.
"What meaning do these things you're saying have for me?"
Seeing Hermione pause, seemingly not quite understanding, Roger explained further, "My goal is Eternal Life, and because there are too many unknown factors in the outside world, if there's no special reason, I want to achieve Eternal Life as soon as possible."
"What you're talking about, whether it's showing off in front of people or becoming a civilizational leader, doesn't help my path to Eternal Life."
Roger didn't reject stepping into the spotlight, nor did he reject guiding the world's direction.
But there was a cause-and-effect relationship here.
He would only do it if it helped him achieve Eternal Life, not because he enjoyed doing it.
Just like when Roger revealed his strength to the German Minister of Magic, it was to ensure his Time Phantom Shuttle Spell was not interfered with and to prepare for his Path of Immortality.
It wasn't because he found Vogel's legs trembling amusing.
Roger wouldn't do things that reversed the order of importance.
"If I were to follow your pace, undoubtedly, my path to Eternal Life would likely take much longer to achieve. I have no reason to do that."
Hermione frowned, "How so? Once you become the center of the world, you'll have the power to mobilize the entire world. Wouldn't that make the path to Eternal Life smoother?"
Hermione followed Roger's line of thought. She knew about Roger's pursuit of Eternal Life, but she had a different opinion on the matter.
Roger sighed lightly. It seemed she still didn't understand.
Hermione's potential was good, and he hoped she could go further in her magical path in the future. Therefore, he was willing to spend more time explaining the intricacies to her.
"Is there a possibility..."
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